Ole Miss women's basketball's season reached the final whistle on Saturday with a cold-blooded triple from Texas.
Their reaching the semifinals, however, after not even making a wildcard or an underdog ranking in polls, shows just how dangerous they could be in the race to the Big Dance.
Her team not getting enough appreciation for the stunning season they had, despite the lows, was what ultimately pushed head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin to make the SEC and the rest of the NCAA pay attention.
"When I turned the TV on and saw all the projections, we weren’t mentioned anywhere. As far as they were concerned, we weren’t even supposed to be here. But I was filled with pride," Coach Yo said post-Texas loss.
Yolett McPhee-McCuin's vision is what every Ole Miss fan roots for
"My goal is to win a national championship. To do that, you have to go to the Elite Eight and the Final Four, and I haven’t done that yet. But think about it this way: when you reach the Sweet Sixteen, that means there are 16 teams left in the entire country out of more than 300. Well, our conference has 16 teams, and we were one of the final four still playing on the last day before the championship in arguably the best league in the country."
"We did that after a four-game skid. We did it with one of our starters out — and she’ll be back," Coach Yo reminded, adding why there was still time to recognize the Rebels as what they are this season: a force to be reckoned with.
"People saw what we did to Auburn and Vanderbilt. They saw how we fought back in this game. It was a two-point game late, and it was much closer than the final score shows. We’re going to be a tough out. Coach Vic even said that to me in the handshake line."
"We’re going to defend, we’re going to compete, and we’re going to represent our conference and our university at a high level. The committee will do its job, and we’ll deal with whatever comes our way," McPhee-McCuin asserted, talking about their NCAA Tournament anticipation.
Anticipation is still brewing in Oxford for March 15, the day the NCAA seeding is released. Only this time, it’s the kind of suspense they actually look forward to.